“We are not experimental subjects, we are humans!”

“And I think its time that you started treating us as such!”

So said Xsavier Daniels, student at Lehman High School in the Bronx, one of the thirty of so schools that Mayor Bloomberg and the educrats at Tweed want to close and “turn around,” firing half the staff in the process.

The below video was produced by Jaisal Noor of The Real News.

Maryland students protesting school conditions met with attack dogs

See this interview of Ashley Pinder and Erin James, activist students at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. On March 1, the students planned a walk-out of the school because of class sizes of up to 40 students per class — “We’re not learning” says Erin — unappetizing and non-nutritional school lunches, and the deporting of their Filipino teachers. As Erin puts it, the authorities responded “very immaturely”: the front doors were locked, police came to the school with attack dogs, and several students were suspended for “thought crimes”. Join their Facebook page and watch the video below.

Class size crisis in Oregon: classes of forty or more

Rita Solnet of PAA: Stop wasting our tax dollars on failed reforms!

There were so many great speeches at the SOS rally; but this is one of my favorites, from the fabulous Rita Solnet of Parents Across America and one of the organizers of the entire three day extravaganza. I hope it is captured in video somewhere; but meanwhile, you can read it below.

UPDATE: here’s the video!

There’s a quote in my office from Eleanor Roosevelt which says: “Do One Thing Every Day that Scares You!” Well, Eleanor, this is my one thing today.

Why am I here? Seriously, why am I here?

I am a businesswoman. I’m not a teacher.
I am a Chamber of Commerce member, I’m not a Union member.
I am a volunteer obnoxiously raising funds from family and friends. I’m certainly not in anyone’s back pocket.

When the Save Our Schools Executive Committee asked me to speak today, I mulled it over with my mentor— my son! At some point we changed roles. He said, “Mom, if you think you can change one person’s mind or one vote in Congress, then, you must do this.” He was right. He’s here today–a graduate of Florida’s public schools.

You see, I know that what’s happening in our public schools is hurting our nation’s children.

I know this because I’m one of hundreds of thousands of public school parents who volunteer in public schools, and who led PTAs for 15 years.

You see, I was that weekly Room Mom who experienced first hand the difference between 36 kids in an elementary classroom and 15 kids. You can’t fool me because I’ve been there.

I had a front row seat when Florida launched a one size fits all, micromanaged, whizbang Race to the Top curriculum. I saw how it robbed teachers of the flexibility to do what’s best for every child. And, I saw how it robbed children of their ability to discover their inner talents and tap their creativity. Oh No. You can’t fool me!

I’ve witnessed how this obsessive focus on standardized tests converted schools to test prep factories. Schools no longer have time for Music, Arts, Literature, PE, Social Studies, Languages, Civics. So don’t talk to me about Innovation. No, you can’t fool me.

I don’t want to burst your bubble test, but this is not good education!

I’ve watched how we now teach our children how to guess at bubble tests– as if the answer to all life’s problems will be placed in front of them to choose.

I see how everything rides on these scores–teachers salaries, their jobs, whether the school remains open–it all falls on the shoulders of that one child taking that one test on that one day. Is that what you mean by Game Changer? You can’t fool me.

We are abandoning entire segments of our nation for the sake of collecting useless data — that’s right –useless. The children nor the teacher never see the results. Right answers, wrong answers, where they need to improve–who knows? They never see it. Does that make sense to any of you here?

I’m here today to add my voice to yours to appeal to common sense in education.

I’m here today to say stop wasting my tax dollars on failed reforms. NCLB never worked–it put us in this mess.

I’m asking this Administration and Capitol Hill to listen with a Capital L.  Listen to those in the trenches — Listen to informed parents — Listen to your constituents.

I’m not alone. There are many parents here today. We’re here today to give the Dept of Education a Robo Call of our own! Right?

I’m the co founder of Parents Across America and we are here today in full force.

Our members scrimped and saved for months to be here. We lobbied all day Thursday in appointments on Capitol Hill. Parents Across America are here today — not just from DC–not just from Maryland or Virginia–we are here today from:

Seattle, Spokane, from San Francisco and Los Angeles—from Phoenix, Denver, Madison, Wisconsin and from Chicago, Portland, Oregon and New Orleans– from North Carolina, from Pennsylvania, from New Jersey, from New York and from Florida.

Today is not the final destination. This march is the beginning.

The beginning of a nationwide community of advocates — bringing common sense back into America’s classrooms. Parents helping other parents and parents helping teachers.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for — right here — all of us.

And, we are the only ones we can depend upon to put the public back in public education. Are you with me? Right here — right now.

Parents Across America’s motto is: Our schools. Our children. Our voices.

Now, I hear they are a little tone deaf in the beltway so I need your help.

WHOSE SCHOOLS? Our Schools.
WHOSE CHILDREN? Our Children.
WHOSE VOICES? Our Voices.

Thank you very much.

Matt Damon’s speech at the SOS march that made teachers cry

Matt Damon and his mom who introduced him, Nancy Carlsson Page. The full transcript is here.

Excerpt:

So the next time you’re feeling down, or exhausted, or unappreciated, or at the end of your rope; the next time you turn on the TV and see yourself called “overpaid;” the next time you encounter some simple-minded, punitive policy that’s been driven into your life by some corporate reformer who has literally never taught anyone anything. … Please know that there are millions of us behind you. You have an army of regular people standing right behind you, and our appreciation for what you do is so deeply felt. We love you, we thank you and we will always have your back.

Chicago teacher debate on Education Nation

An insightful discussion on education reforms among Chicago teachers on the Education Nation/NBC series, aired on May 2.  We have edited out the first fourteen minutes, which consisted of a painfully slow introduction from NBC, Univ. of Phoenix and the other sponsors of the series.

There’s much incisive debate on the show, but one of the most interesting moments is a heartfelt statement at its conclusion from a teacher at Urban Prep Academy on the importance of keeping class sizes small. Urban Prep is the Chicago charter school that Arne Duncan highlights for its results, and yet at the same time, Duncan insists on devaluing the importance of class size. Another indication of the hypocrisy of the corporate reform crowd.

Untitled from david bellel on Vimeo.

Closing Detroit school for pregnant teens; ground zero for democracy?

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See Rachel Maddow’s show from March 22, in which she explains how Robert Bobb, the Broad-trained manager of Detroit schools, plans to close the Catherine Ferguson Academy,  a special public school for pregnant teens.  In the video,  the girls enrolled in the school are shown being arrested after protesting the school’s closure.

Recently, Bobb was given expanded “emergency powers” to do an end-run around democracy.  This is what he said according to the  April 8, Detroit News about his new powers: “…I do drool when I think of the pace of change we could achieve under the new law.”

Bobb is paid $420,000 a year, with one third of his salary paid by two foundations that support charter schools, including the Broad Foundation.  Coincidentally (or not), he has decided to turn over about one third of the district’s schools to charter operators, or close them.

Another school slated for closure is Detroit’s Day School for the Deaf.  For more on this, see the website of By Any Means Necessary, the Daily Kos, or the Detroit News.

Seattle speaks out; Newark, please listen!

Check out the Seattle town hall meeting aired February 10, with parents and community members speaking out about the failed leadership of their Broad-trained Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson, who was recently fired from the post but is reportedly a top candidate for the Newark superintendency.

See also Sue Peter’s post, Seattle’s Fired Superintendent, Maria Goodloe-Johnson, on the short list for Newark School District’s top spot: Seattle says Huh??? — and Heads-up!

Student play blasting education policies in NYC and nation as a whole

Check out the performance of the play “Declassified: Struggle for Existence (We Used to Eat Lunch Together)” at the off-Broadway Abingdon Theater in NYC.   The play was written and performed by students at Queens Collegiate and Jamaica High Schools, directed by Brian Pickett of Queensborough Community College.

Jamaica is now slated for closure by the NYC Department of Education, while Queens Collegiate is a newer, better-funded small school with a more selective admissions process, that offers more opportunities for students and has taken space in the Jamaica building.

The play, initially banned by the schools’  principals because it was too critical of the DOE’s decision to close Jamaica, is a powerful critique of the current direction of education reform in NYC and the nation as a whole, in which those making policies for our schools have decided that the best way to improve them is to close them down.

It also points out the huge inequities involved in the small schools initiative, which provides students in the small schools with more space, better equipment, more textbooks and smaller classes than students in the large schools, who were deprived of these conditions in the first place, and are subjected to even worse conditions while their schools are phased out.

Also see this excellent report by the Urban Youth Collaborative, with evidence of the challenges the schools slated for closure face, overwhelmed with high-needs students that the new small schools did not enroll, and yet given no support for their efforts to improve. The report also reveals the spike in dropout and discharge rates as these schools phase out.

The performance is followed by a discussion with the audience.

Jamaica HS- Declassified: Struggle for Existence (We Used to Eat Lunch Together) from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

Joanne Barkan on how billionaires are controlling our public schools

And contributing to a “democracy deficit.”

Her seminal article in Dissent, “Got Dough,” is here.

Parents Across America on corporate interests in education